Obsessive Runner – Andrew Chak

It starts with the hair As I sat down to chat with Toni Carey, the co-founder of Black Girls Run, one of the first things she wanted to talk about was hair. “The lack of activity amongst African-American women is because of issues with their hair.” Hair? Really? Really. For myself, I don’t have many […]

As we begin training for our fall racing goals, now is the ideal time to re-evaluate our most important choice of gear: our running shoes. Given that we do different types of runs in our training, I started wondering if we should have different types of shoes as well. So I decided to go on […]

The change of plans One month before my goal race, my race plans changed. This was certainly at odds with my plan-everything-at-all-costs type-A personality, but the change was worthwhile. The original goal was to chase a half-marathon personal best at the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend, but now I had a different kind of race to […]

We often share TV shows, music, sports and culture so why not share a great holiday too? Our American friends were celebrating National Running Day as they regularly do on the first Wednesday in June each year and we’ve decided to make it our own by dubbing it Canada Running Day. iRun asked for you […]

A kilometer is a kilometer Whether you sprint, run, jog or shuffle, a kilometer is a kilometer. It makes no difference whether you have a forefoot strike, have symmetrical sweat patterns or if your arms flail and you have a look of death on your running face – all mileage is equal. You cannot rush […]

Just giv’er. You’ll find yourself cursing this east coast phrase as you climb the hills of Halifax, but you’ll do so with a smile if you’re running the Blue Nose Marathon. If you’ve ever needed a nudge to head to the east coast for a destination race, then consider this a shove in the right […]

It’s cheerful, has amazing spectators, and features world-class race organization. It’s the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend and it’s the largest multi-distance race event in Canada. This year I’m honoured to be an ambassador for the race weekend as a member of Team Awesome. I will also be racing the half-marathon distance in order to raise […]

Waterfalls. Reggae. Jerk Chicken. Usain Bolt. Jamaica is known for its beautiful sights, laid back culture, flavourful foods and world-class sprinters. And now, this Caribbean island country is emerging as a running destination with race events like the Kingston City Run, Reggae Marathon, and the more recent addition of the Mobay City Run. When I […]

It’s finally here. You didn’t think that this week would ever come, but it’s here. It takes place about a week or so after the big event. You know, the big event we’ve been training for, the big event that we’ve been hashtaggingly talking about for the past too many months. And now, it’s quiet. […]

The quest for silver The journey to this year’s Around the Bay 30K Race started one year ago. On Sunday, March 30, 2014, I finished this historic race with a time of 2:15:59. Those who are familiar with the race know that there is a time-based, graduated medal system. All finishers receive a bronze-coloured medal, […]